DroughtView: d combining on-the-ground know-how with remotely sensed data to assess drought impacts

Jeremy Weiss Climate and Geospatial Extension Scientist School of Natural Resources and the Environment University of Arizona

Water Resources Research Center – Brown Bag Seminar April 12, 2016

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DroughtView is a web-based decision-support tool that combines satellite-derived measures of surface greenness with additional geospatial data.

droughtview.arizona.edu

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DroughtView is a web-based decision-support tool that combines satellite-derived measures of surface greenness with additional geospatial data so that users can visualize and evaluate vegetation dynamics across space and over time.

droughtview.arizona.edu

We will cover DroughtView and its functionality by looking at examples of recent uses and new capabilities.

•  determining rangeland conditions in southeastern Arizona

•  timing vegetation surveys in the low deserts of Arizona and California

•  reporting drought impacts

•  sharing map information

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Is Jeremy developing DroughtView all by himself?

•  < ATTENDEE INPUT! >

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Is Jeremy developing DroughtView all by himself?

•  Answer: Of course not!

Michael Crimmins, SWES Kyle Hartfield, ARSC SNRE Pratima K C, ARSC SNRE Stuart Marsh, SNRE Matt Rahr, CALS CCT Yuta Torrey, CALS CCT Wim van Leeuwen, ARSC SNRE / SGD

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What are some drought-related activities in which you have participated that have needed web map applications or remotely sensed data?

•  < ATTENDEE INPUT! >

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What are some drought-related activities in which you have participated that have needed web map applications or remotely sensed data?

•  < ATTENDEE INPUT! >

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Let’s start by considering where DroughtView is in the current and broad landscape of data for environmental monitoring and modeling.

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?  Being compiled by scientists for scientists, environmental data can be formidable for non-specialists.

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?  There is a wealth of data that, if appropriately analyzed and channeled, can inform decision making in agriculture and natural resources.

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We simply want to take these data and extract something meaningful.

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DroughtView provides visualization and allows evaluation of a large amount of remote sensing data for field expert interpretation.

commons.wikimedia.org

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DroughtView is a web-based decision-support tool that combines satellite-derived measures of surface greenness with additional geospatial data so that users can visualize and evaluate vegetation dynamics across space and over time.

droughtview.arizona.edu

How are satellite measures of surface greenness (left) related to what we see in an aerial image (right)?

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MODIS is a key sensor aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites that detects electromagnetic energy related to numerous atmospheric, land, and ocean phenomena.

•  MODIS – Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

•  a complete electromagnetic view of Earth every two days

•  two satellites work in tandem to measure the same area in the morning and afternoon

17 modis.gsfc.nasa.gov

earthobservatory.nasa.gov, true-color composite

Wallow Fire Arizona 2011

MODIS is a key sensor aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites that detects electromagnetic energy related to numerous atmospheric, land, and ocean phenomena.

•  NDVI – Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

•  compares amounts of the visible light and near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum reflected from Earth’s surface

•  plants reflect electromagnetic radiation differently relative to bare ground and water

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Wallow Fire Arizona 2011

earthobservatory.nasa.gov, true-color composite

Remotely sensed measurements of surface greenness are linked to several characteristics of vegetation.

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22 photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

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Monsoon storms from July through September drive the growth of annual and perennial vegetation while also providing streamflow and ponding critical for livestock.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

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In rural southeastern Arizona, the beef industry is a key part of the regional economic base.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

25 photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

County Area (square miles)1

Population1 Estimated contribution (millions)2

Cochise 6,166 131,357 $59.1 Graham 4,623 37,220 $4.8 Greenlee 1,843 8,437 $3.3 Santa Cruz 1,237 47,420 $5.9 1 for 2010, quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html 2 for 2011 (Kerna et al. 2014)

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Drought lowers vegetation growth and pressures cattle operations toward smaller herd sizes, which can lead to financial losses for ranchers.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

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Ranchers often work with rangeland management personnel from state and federal agencies such as the BLM, USFS, and NRCS to develop appropriate plans for their operations.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

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In recent dry years, this collaboration has taken on a new facet of finding ways to mitigate drought-induced losses that can severely harm or even eliminate a cattle operation.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

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Many ranchers work with the USDA Farm Service Agency through the Disaster Assistance Program to help mitigate livestock losses during drought events.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

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Ground-based measurements of rangeland conditions collected by individuals provide only snapshots of local conditions, and the decision to designate broader areas as under drought remains a challenge.

photo courtesy of Kim McReynolds, UA Cooperative Extension

31 photo credit : Jeremy Weiss

NAP drought assessment March 9, 2016

Jeremy Weiss Climate and Geospatial Extension Scientist

jlweiss@email.arizona.edu

•  annual precipitation was above normal for most of southeastern Arizona

•  surface greenness was near or above average for much of the area at the start and end of the monsoon

•  drought conditions improved over the area during the year

2015 HIGHLIGHTS

Most of SE AZ received above-normal precipitation during the monsoon, with a few areas receiving much-above-normal or near-normal amounts.

33 www.wrcc.dri.edu/wwdt/archive.php

Monsoon precipitation totals last year made noticeable improvements to drought conditions over SE AZ, with most of the area under abnormally dry conditions or no drought.

34 droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndData/MapArchive.aspx

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Bringing together a variety of information proved useful for determining drought impacts to cattle operations in southeastern Arizona.

photo credit : Jeremy Weiss

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Ranchers and agency staff still contend with below-average precipitation ... new actions and solutions may be needed to cope with such challenging conditions.

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Nonetheless, retrospective and real-time monitoring, along with disaster assistance, improve the chances of cattle operations surviving dry periods.

photo credit : Jeremy Weiss

40 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

41 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

“Imagine you could pick any place in the continental US and find out if the plants are lying low, stricken by drought, or greening up with a shot of moisture and warmth.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

42 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

“The latter is what interests me in my work on vast military ranges, where I’m chasing invasive plants in Arizona and making a flora in California.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

43 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

“I’ve long known that sensors on satellites can detect actively growing plants, but lacked the brains and money to utilize the data.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

44 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

“Tasked with making a flora of this mostly undocumented 200,000 hectares of bomb craters and desert, I formerly spent days searching for places where I’d find the flowers and fruits that make a specimen worthy of an herbarium sheet. Using DroughtView … ” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

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46 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

“The area covered in this case was over 300 square miles. Along with Andy Sanders, curator for the University of California Riverside Herbarium, we headed straight for the blue (= greener) areas.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

47 photos courtesy of Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

“The payoff was not only blooming brittlebush, but a species of pea, Hoffmannseggia peninsularis, never before documented in the United States. It’s unlikely we would have found it, blooming in January (!), without DroughtView guiding us.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

48 ©Mark Dimmitt, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum via research.pomona.edu

49 ©Mark Dimmitt, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum via research.pomona.edu

50 ©Mark Dimmitt, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum via research.pomona.edu

“DroughtView is proving similarly useful in coordinating surveys for an invasive annual, Sahara mustard, on the Barry M. Goldwater Range in SW Arizona.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

51 ©Mark Dimmitt, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum via research.pomona.edu

“The range is enormous, and previous efforts to curtail the mustard were in vain because there was always some area serving as a refuge, a place nobody could find where rain had nonetheless fallen.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

52 ©Mark Dimmitt, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum via research.pomona.edu

“With DroughtView, I direct the range wardens for the Marines to those hiding spots, where they use a smart phone app to document the mustard. The data is stored locally in the phone until they return to civilization and cellular towers ... ” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

53 ©Mark Dimmitt, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum via research.pomona.edu

“The National Park Service Exotic Plant Management Team checks out the site before launching their spring assassinations. Thanks to DroughtView, they know exactly where to go.” --Jim Malusa, UA SNRE

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DroughtView provides visualization and allows evaluation of a large amount of remote sensing data for field expert interpretation.

commons.wikimedia.org

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“The promise of abundant data is not that we can show people more data, but that we can … learn from these new datasets.”

commons.wikimedia.org, marketsforgood.org/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-data-visualization-for-good

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Tools like DroughtView help remove some of the mess and complexity of working with large amounts of environmental data …

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… and provide stakeholders with a more streamlined experience that will allow them to ask new questions and think through problems.

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“Your tool won’t tell the whole story; Context is key; The … magic combination for making … change with data is equal parts technical analysis and local context.”

commons.wikimedia.org, marketsforgood.org/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-data-visualization-for-good

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